A Conceptual question - regarding using Statistical functions

Hi,

I want to use functions like Standard Deviation, Variance, and other forms of these (StdDevp, Varp) but am not clear about what these really do. All I know is that if I am clear about these functions, I can really put these to good use. BTW, maybe there are many more functions in addition to the one's that I have listed??

Can you kindly assist me with a mini example in understanding what these functions do?

Suppose I have the Total and Average of orders. How can these functions be put to use? Kindly help me out if you can come up with a better example.

I'll be grateful for your help.

Many TIA.We can't give you a crash course on statistics in these posts. For example, "Average" can be a very misleading term unless you know the Standard Deviation of your population, as well as other statistical descriptions of your data's distribution.

SQL Server's Books On Line does not do a good job of explaining the use or purpose of statistical functions, but if you look the equivalent functions up in Microsoft Excel's Help system, you will find brief guides on how to use the functions.|||There are, however, many "statistics tutorials" on the Internet. A search at http://www.google.com for these keywords produced 1,620,000 hits.

Like this one: http://math.about.com/cs/statistics/

Mark Twain once said, "there are lies, damn lies, and statistics." It is extremely easy to mislead, intentionally or otherwise, with a misplaced statistic.|||Thanks All. I'll check it on google.

Regards.